TEL AVIV/DUBAI/WASHINGTON: Iran and Israel targeted each other with missiles and airstrikes early on Saturday after Israel launched its biggest-ever air offensive against its longtime foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Air raid sirens sounded across Israel, including in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, sending residents rushing into shelters as successive waves of Iranian missiles streaked across the skies and Israeli interceptors rose up to meet them.
A man and a woman were killed in Israel and dozens wounded by a missile that landed near their homes, Israel’s ambulance service said.
Rescue teams were searching the rubble of apartment buildings that were destroyed in Rishon Lezion, a city outside of Tel Aviv.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday the Iranian leadership had crossed a red line by firing at civilians and will “pay a heavy price for it”.
A missile fired from Yemen by the Houthi militia, killed five Palestinians including three children in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
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In Iran, several explosions were heard overnight in the capital Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The Fars news agency said two projectiles hit Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, and Iranian media said flames were reported there. Close to key Iranian leadership sites, the airport hosts an air force base with fighter jets and transport aircraft.
Iran’s U.N. envoy Amir Saeid Iravani said 78 people, including senior military officials, have been killed in Israel’s strikes on Iran and more than 320 wounded, most of them civilians.
Tehran launched waves of airstrikes on Saturday after two salvos on Friday night, Fars reported. One of the waves targeted Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, before dawn on Saturday, with explosions heard as far as Jerusalem, witnesses said.
Those were in response to Israel’s attacks on Iran early on Friday against commanders, nuclear scientists, military targets and nuclear sites. Iran denies that its uranium enrichment activities are part of a secret weapons programme.
The U.S. military helped shoot down Iranian missiles headed to Israel on Friday, two U.S. officials said. Israel’s military said Iran fired fewer than 100 missiles on Friday and that most were intercepted or fell short.
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The Israeli strikes on Iran throughout the day and the Iranian retaliation raised fears of a broader regional conflagration, although Iran’s allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been decimated by Israel.
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Iran’s state news agency IRNA said Tehran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel after Israel blasted Iran’s huge Natanz underground nuclear site and killed its top military commanders.
Israeli officials said Natantz was significantly hurt but that it may be some time before the extent of damage was clear. Western countries have long accused Iran of refining uranium there to levels suitable for a bomb rather than civilian use.
The above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Natanz has been destroyed, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council on Friday. He said the U.N. was still gathering information about Israeli attacks on two other facilities, the Fordow fuel enrichment plant and at Isfahan.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Israel of starting a war. A senior Iranian official said nowhere in Israel would be safe and revenge would be painful.
Iran has accused the U.S. of being complicit in the attacks and said it shared full responsibility for the consequences.
Israel’s U.N. envoy Danny Danon said intelligence had confirmed that within days Iran would have produced enough fissile material for multiple bombs. He called Israel’s operation “an act of national preservation.”
Iran has long insisted its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only. The U.N. nuclear watchdog concluded this week that it was in violation of its obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.
U.S. President Donald Trump said it was not too late for Tehran to halt the Israeli bombing campaign by reaching a deal on its nuclear programme.
Tehran had been engaged in talks with the Trump administration on a deal to curb its nuclear programme to replace one that Trump abandoned in 2018. Tehran rejected the last U.S. offer.
The talks are due to resume in Oman on Sunday but Iran signalled it might not join.
“The other side (the U.S.) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday. “You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime (Israel) to target Iran’s territory.”
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